As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One type of system for accessing and managing hardware components within an information handling system is SMASH (Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware). SMASH is an initiative from the DMTF (Desktop Management Task Force) that defines Command Line Protocol (CLP) as a standard human-oriented management interface for accessing managed systems in data center. The syntax and semantics of the commands for CLP, as well as how the commands get transferred over the network using character-based protocols such as telnet or Secure Socket Handler (SSH), are defined by the CLP specifications.
SMASH-CLP is an emerging standard that has received industry-wide support as the next generation interactive mode interface for managing a variety of devices. However, SMASH-CLP has several hurdles to overcome prior to becoming widely accepted and easily utilized. Foremost, most newcomers to SMASH-CLP face a steep learning curve prior to becoming efficient in SMASH-CLP. For example, new users must learn, at a minimum, a new command language, new console applications, and new protocols. Other problems or challenges to overcome include implementation requirements for SMASH-CLP by accessing either a telnet protocol, which has security deficiency, or a SSH protocol, which may incur overhead for lightweight devices. As such, what is needed is a system and method to reduce the learning curve associated with SMASH-CLP while maintaining sufficient security and minimal overhead for process limited devices.
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